The Boston Red Sox had Marcelo Mayer on the bench to start opening day’s contest against the Cincinnati Reds, but he ended up having a big game.
Mayer came in as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning and hit a double. He came around to score the go-ahead run on a single from Ceddanne Rafaela. He singled to start the ninth inning, and eventually came around to score a big-time insurance run. Roman Anthony ended up taking most of the headlines, but he made sure to praise Mayer after the game.
“”He’s unbelievable. He’s a great player,” Anthony said of Mayer after the game. “Him being able to do that off the bench, the kind of player he is, is going to be huge for us all year. The defense. The at-bats. The quality of at-bats in the spring, I think, was huge and something that was kind of slept on. Guys in here saw it. It’s great to see that from him and kind of rolling it into Opening Day, and off the bench, too.”
The pressure of the moment was not lost on Anthony. Mayer is trying to prove he can be an everyday player, and he was asked to deliver in a scoreless tie on opening day. He delivered and showed a glimmer of what Red Sox fans expected out of him when he was coming up through the minor leagues.
Anthony and Mayer came up through the Red Sox minor league system together and are very good friends. They were roommates for years, and now both are trying to help bring a World Series back to Boston.
More MLB: Roman Anthony Gets Lofty Prediction From Red Sox Insider